Housing and planning minister sheds further light on starter homes proposals

The policy will give first-time buyers under the age of 40 the chance to buy homes a discount of at least 20% from market value.

Speaking at an evidence session of the Housing and Planning Bill committee on 19 November, Lewis said the government will produce regulations setting out the proportion of starter homes expected to be delivered on each site, following "a technical consultation to be launched soon".

Lewis said the government will use regulations to prevent starter homes being bought by buy-to-let landlords, but there will be no restriction on how the homes are paid for by those intending to buy and live in them. He said the government does not intend to means-test applicants and restrict eligibility by income and confirmed that buyers "will be given the opportunity to sell their property after five years ... to realise its full value, enabling them to move onwards to new housing". 

Lewis also said there is no intention to restrict access to those with a local connection, but said the government will be "seeking views" on whether an exception ought to be available for rural exception sites.

Where a council is considered to be failing to deliver the necessary number of starter homes, Lewis said the communities secretary will carefully consider the circumstances before issuing a compliance direction requiring those parts of their local plan restricting delivery to be disregarded. The minister said such directions will "not act on a neighbourhood plan policy or a London Plan policy" and that "if there is overriding evidence that the council has done everything it can to comply with the starter homes duty, but has not been able to deliver, that could be taken into account".

The minister also confirmed that the government will consult on "changing the definition of affordable housing", with homes for sale currently excluded from the definition in the National Planning Policy Framework.

Planning expert Lucy Close of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said: "It is interesting to see how the starter homes proposal is evolving. What started as a scheme to provide affordable homes for young people on commercial and industrial sites has now evolved into a scheme to provide such homes on all 'reasonably-sized sites'."

"What is concerning is that the scheme may not actually benefit those who need it most given that it appears at this stage that there will be no means-testing or general restrictions on local connections in terms of eligibility," said Close. "This is particularly concerning when it is not yet clear how starter homes will sit with the provision of other types of affordable housing."

"Lewis has said that flexibility is envisaged in relation to the proportion of starter homes to be required on sites. Whilst this is an attractive position in terms of differing viability pressures across the country, it will be interesting to see how this flexibility works in practice in terms of providing certainty to all stakeholders involved," Close said.